Brendan Coyle: 'Downton can't run forever'

'Downton Abbey' star Brendan Coyle does not think the series will keep running indefinitely because otherwise it would become 'Emmerdale'

Brendan Coyle thinks 'Downton Abbey' will turn into 'Emmerdale' if it keeps running.

The 48-year-old actor - who portrays John Bates in the ITV1 period drama series - insists the cast of the programme know when it should come to an end before it becomes too similar to other shows on TV.

He said: "I can pretty much say all of us know when 'Downton' is going to end. This is a show with a finite life. If we bring this into the 1950s, it's 'Emmerdale'. Though I really like 'Emmerdale'."

While 'Downton' has tasted success in both the UK and the US, Brendan admits it is seen as more of a "guilty pleasure" in his home nation as opposed to the "effusive" reaction the programme has received in America.

He explained to Radio Times magazine: "The difference between Los Angeles and here is that there, the insiders, the taste-makers, they all love 'Downton'. It's much more effusive there. By contrast, the initial response over here was that it must be a cultural guilty pleasure."